Google is currently rumoured to be working on a new Nexus 10 tablet that is likely to replace the Exynos 5 processor and Mali-T604 GPU as found in the original Nexus 10 tablet, reports Droid Life via chip-focussed site Bright Side of News.

The second generation Google Nexus 10 tablet may feature a quad-core processor and new 8-core Mali-T678 GPU. BSN also claims to have spotted the new tablet at CES in an identical current Nexus 10 chassis. They further add that the benchmark performance on it was "night and day" compared to the original.

Google is also believed to be making minor design improvements over the current Nexus 10 tablet though a major overhaul in design will be applicable only for the third-gen, which is pretty far away from this point.

While we believe we saw a prototype design in an old chassis (it was identical to the currently selling Nexus 10), the performance difference in popular benchmarks was night and day. The final design of the part (Google currently does not have final versions of the chassis) should address the shortcomings of the original design, even though we were told that the company was satisfied with the original design. They did agree that the design lacked a bit of "wow factor", but that will probably wait for the third generation.

Going by these sources, the tablet could make a rather quiet appearance at the Mobile World Congress next month, though the device may not be shipped in the initial couple of months possibly until the back-to-school period. Then it would be more sensible on Google's part to see the Google I/O event as a possible launch opportunity.

The original Nexus 10 was launched in October last year, which marked the search giant's entry into the 10-inch tablet arena. other specs of the tablet include a dual-core Cortex A15 processor with 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 5-megapixel rear and 1.9-megapixel front cameras, NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a 9,000mAh battery.

The entry-level Nexus 10 (Review) is priced at $399 and began selling in November 2012 in the US, Britain, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan. The other variant is a 32GB Wi-Fi only Nexus 10 that costs $499.